Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2 million, over 93.5 million cases of infection were detected, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from Federal and local authorities, media and other sources.

As of 20:20 GMT Friday, the number of cases globally is 93,580,828, including 2,003,625 fatalities.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 23,441,737, including 390,649 fatalities.

Russia may vaccinate 60 percent of the population against the coronavirus in the first year, this is a very serious achievement, the head of Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

Russia is poised to register its third vaccine against COVID-19, Anna Popova, the head of public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said, noting that the clinical trials of a vaccine developed by the Chumakov research center of the Russian academy of Sciences were positive.

The head of Russia's Gamaleya research institute, which developed the Sputnik V vaccine, explained to Sputnik that those who had already had the coronavirus should be vaccinated anyway, two of three months after recovering.

Moscow medical center Hadassah said it had stopped talks with Pfizer to buy their coronavirus vaccine and would use Russia's Sputnik V.

Import of unregistered coronavirus vaccines in Russia is an issue that has yet to be improved, a spokesperson for the International Medical Cluster in Moscow's Skolkovo high-tech village told Sputnik.

Moscow and Caracas are exploring ways to ensure the delivery of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to Venezuela, which is expected to start by the end of January, Russia's ambassador to Venezuela, Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov, told Sputnik.

The Mexican state of Nuevo Leon intends to begin negotiations with Russian representatives over the purchase of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, Manuel de la O Cavazos, the state minister of health, told the El Universal newspaper, adding that the vaccine will likely be produced in the Mexican region as well.

Bolivia is currently boosting its infrastructure to prepare it for the deliveries of Russia's vaccine against the coronavirus called Sputnik V, Deputy Health Minister Alvaro Terrazas said. Bolivia will receive the first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus from January 25-31, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration Benjamin Blanco Ferri told Sputnik.

Bolivian President Luis Arce will be among the first people in the country to receive Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, developed by Russia's Gamaleya research institute, in a show of confidence in the national immunization campaign, presidential spokesman Jorge Richter said.

The Paraguayan Health Ministry approved Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, which was registered under the emergency use authorization procedure without additional clinical trials in the South American country, the Russian Direct Investment Funds (RDIF) said.

The likelihood of COVID-19 becoming an endemic disease means the Chilean government cannot rule out future procurement of vaccines from Russian developers, Chile's Under-Secretary for International Economic Relations Rodrigo Yanez told Sputnik.

As many as 19 vaccination centers, where Parisians aged 75 years and older will be able to get shots against the coronavirus, will open in the French capital in the beginning of next week, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said.

Italy began vaccinating seniors aged 80 and older who do not live in residential care facilities, planning to administer 460,000 doses, according to the authorities.

Experts from Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute are looking into the deaths of 10 people who passed away soon after having been inoculated against the novel coronavirus disease, Brigitte Keller-Stanislawski, the head of the institute's department of safety of medicinal products and medical de�vices, said.

Ukraine will have enough vaccine doses this year to vaccinate everyone willing against the coronavirus disease, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

Latvia is not ruling out the possibility of using Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V if it is authorized by the European Union, Latvian Health Minister Daniels Pavluts said.

New York City will run out of COVID-19 vaccines by next week unless the federal government and others in the supply chain dramatically change their approach to meet demand, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Canada will likely experience a shortage of coronavirus vaccine doses through to the end of the first quarter of 2021, the country's vaccine distribution czar Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin said.

The Lebanese parliament on Friday passed a special law that would allow emergency use of medicine against the coronavirus disease and the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.

Several Chinese medical specialists are calling for a suspension of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns that use mRNA-based vaccines, such as the one produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, especially among senior citizens, the Global Times newspaper reported, following reports on vaccination-related deaths in Norway.

Russia is working on the treatment against the coronavirus based on antibodies and may start clinical trials at some point after June this year, head of Gamaleya research center, Alexander Gintsburg, told Sputnik.

Russia may create a test system within 2-3 weeks that would distinguish an original coronavirus from a virus with mutation, the head of Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

The Institute of Epidemiology of Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has developed a test for COVID-19, which can detect the virus in 60-90 minutes, the institute's director Vasily Akimkin said.

More than 200 test systems for detecting coronavirus and antibodies have been developed and registered in Russia, and Russian developments on COVID-19 are now used in more than 50 countries, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.

Citizens of Thailand and the United Kingdom are most willing to take a vaccine against the coronavirus disease, according to a fresh YouGov poll.

Russia registered 24,715 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 24,763 the day before, taking the tally to 3,520,531, the coronavirus response center said.

Mexico has registered 16,468 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, the health ministry said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that current COVID-19 restrictions should be in force for some time more, as official figures showed that the UK has recorded 55,761 new coronavirus cases and 1,280 further deaths in the last 24 hours.

The UK government ban on travels from South America, Portugal and Cape Verde over concerns about a new coronavirus variant recently identified in Brazil became effective on Friday, with UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps denying claims that the government had been too slow to act.

Shapps also said that British haulers were exempt from France's new coronavirus test rule that requires arrivals to get a negative PCR test before going to the country.

The authorities of the Spanish regions are introducing new restrictive measures related to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on the government to establish a strict quarantine, while Spain's health ministry does not consider the tightening of measures necessary.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) extended the suspension of flights from the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa until January 25 over fears of the new coronavirus strain discovered in the UK.

Ukraine will not extend the strict lockdown introduced over the coronavirus pandemic beyond January 24, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

Estonia has allowed entry without restrictions on the movement for passengers arriving from Iceland, Greece and Finland starting on Friday, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Friday held a meeting to discuss introducing harsher punishments for violators of coronavirus rules as the country sees a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, media reported.

The authorities of Japan's Ibaraki prefecture have decided to independently declare a state of emergency on its territory amid a surge in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, following suit of other prefectures, Kazuhiko Oigawa, the governor of Ibaraki, said.

Seychelles has reopened its borders to all tourists who received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, Seychelles news Agency reported, citing Tourism Minister Sylvestre Radegonde.

The United Kingdom's gross domestic product (GDP) fell 2.6 percent in November as a result of the strict lockdown measures brought into force across all four nations to control the spread of the coronavirus disease, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said.

The eastern German state of Saxony plans to put repeat quarantine offenders and coronavirus dissidents in a former migrant processing center in Dresden, media said.

Argentina's inflation amounted to 36.1 percent in 2020 against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic compared to 53.8 percent a year earlier, the National Institute of Statistics and Census said.

The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) spoke against requiring proof of vaccination or immunity against the coronavirus disease for international travel. However, the WHO does not rule out introduction of immunization passports for international travel if the situation with COVID-19 changes, Michael Ryan, director of the WHO health emergencies program, said.

EU member states are yet undecided on the format of a common personal vaccination record document, although the initiative has the support of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the commission's spokesperson Dana Spinant said. EU member states should coordinate the movement of citizens amid the pandemic, for example, by letting people cross internal borders with a negative PCR test rather than the earlier proposed vaccination passports, von der Leyen said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau downplayed the idea of introducing COVID-19 vaccine passports during a speech at the Reuters Next virtual conference.

Venezuela will send oxygen tanks for COVID-19 treatment to the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, after the region has exhausted all resources, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said.